The production of crystallized sugar from raw sugarcane is well known. Furthermore, the development of equipment and associated processes for producing sugar from sugarcane stalks has been extensive. Generally, sugar product is produced from a naturally occurring liquid contained within the cells of raw sugarcane stalks.
In many places throughout the world, and especially in Latin America, this naturally-occurring juice contained in the cells of sugarcane stalks is highly regarded as a beverage. In Latin America, this natural juice product is commonly referred to as “guarapo.” The term “guarapo,” which carries the unmistakable sonority of its Quechuan origin, has become part of the Spanish lexicon to identify and define arguably the most pleasant and truly popular beverage in South America. Fresh guarapo has long been regarded as a healthy beverage which, in addition to providing thirst-quenching refreshment, is believed to have attributes that improve and enhance sexual performance. In fact, songs written by grateful Latin Americans having firsthand knowledge of its gifts have become an integral part of Latin American folklore.
The present applicant, in his issued U.S. Pat. No. 6,245,153 (the entire contents of which are incorporated-by-reference herein) disclosed an improved method for processing raw sugarcane to produce a consumable sugarcane juice, which overcame significant shelf life limitations of then state-of-the-art sugarcane processing methods. Prior to applicant's prior patented invention, there were no known methods for efficiently producing a natural guarapo product having an adequate shelf life to support commercial distribution thereof. In his '153 patent, the present applicant teaches a novel method for producing a stabilized natural sugarcane juice product having an adequate shelf life to enable commercial distribution, which does not require the addition of unnatural chemical additives, such as acids, during juice processing.
Since the time of applicant's initial invention (i.e. as disclosed in applicant's '153 patent), there has been a dramatic increase in the occurrence of dangerously high blood cholesterol levels in humans. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that 73.5 million adults (31.7%) in the United States have unhealthy “low-density lipoprotein” or LDL cholesterol levels, which is well known to cause a host of health problems in humans. Furthermore, the CDC has indicated that less than one out of every three adults (or 29.5%) with high LDL cholesterol has the condition under control. People with high total cholesterol levels have approximately twice the risk of heart disease as people with ideal total cholesterol levels.
The pharmaceutical industry has addressed the high-cholesterol problem by continuing to develop a laundry list of cholesterol-lowering drugs known as “statins,” including those sold under the brand names LIPITOR, PRAVACHOLD, CRESTOR, ZOCOR, LESCOL and VYTORIN, to name just a few examples. Statins are a class of medicines that are used to lower blood cholesterol levels by blocking the action of an enzyme in the liver that is necessary for making cholesterol. Cholesterol is necessary for normal cell and body function, but above normal, or high, LDL and total cholesterol levels can lead to atherosclerosis, a condition where cholesterol-containing plaques build up in the arteries and block blood flow. By reducing blood cholesterol levels, statins lower the risk of chest pain (i.e. angina), heart attack, and stroke. However, there are numerous well-documented risks and side effects associated with such pharmaceutical statin drugs. Most people who take statins have undesirable side effects, including, but not limited to, headaches, pins-and-needles sensation, abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, nausea, and skin rashes. Furthermore, it has been found that some statin drugs may impair memory and increase the risk for development of cataracts, as well as cause more serious side effects such as liver failure and skeletal muscle damage. Additionally, a significant segment of the high-cholesterol population is advised against taking statins, including people with progressive liver disease, and pregnant and breast-feeding women (or those intending to become pregnant).
Concurrently, there has been an increasing awareness throughout the medical community that policosanol, a naturally-occurring ingredient of raw sugarcane, has shown growing promise as an effective remedy for the treatment of unhealthy elevated blood cholesterol levels in humans. Researchers have found that policosanols contained in raw sugarcane stalks are remarkably effective and very safe in reducing levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), a component of cholesterol that is known to cause a host of health-related problems at elevated levels in individuals. While policosanol is a naturally-occurring component of sugarcane it is completely unrelated to sugar, chemically speaking. Sugar and policosanol just happen to come from the same plant. The effectiveness of policosanol in the treatment of high cholesterol levels has proven to be so great that initial estimates of the recommended daily intake of policosanol required to efficiently and effectively reduce above-normal LDL and total cholesterol levels is miniscule.
Policosanol is a kind of alcohol. Actually, policosanol is the collective name for a group of eight related solid alcohols (long-chain primary aliphatic saturated alcohols), of which one specific compound, known as Octacosanol, is the most prevalent in the mixture extracted from sugarcane. Policosanol is known to improve blood lipids, and research studies documenting its highly beneficial effects on human cholesterol levels are continuing to be published. Myriad medical studies have shown that policosanol lowers low-density lipoprotein (LDL), commonly referred to as ‘bad cholesterol’ while increasing high-density lipoprotein (HDL), commonly referred to as ‘good cholesterol’. Additional benefits of policosanol for treating high cholesterol and a host of other health-related issues, as well as an in-depth description of how policosanol functions to provide such incredible health benefits is further described in an article entitled “Policosanol Improves Every Measure of Blood Cholesterol” (www.life-enhancement.com/magazine/article/710-policosanol-improves-every-measures-of-blood-cholesterol), the entire contents of which are incorporated-by-reference herein. Medical studies continue to support the contention that policosanol works better than synthetically-derived pharmaceuticals when it comes to treating high blood pressure.
Moreover, an additional benefit of policosanols is that they contain octacosanol, which has been found to have additional health benefits for treating insomnia due to stress, athletic performance and symptoms of Parkinson's disease, as well as having anti-cancer (e.g. reduced tumor growth) properties.
Consequently, the ability to efficiently and effectively process a highly-stable sugarcane juice product while maximizing the preservation of policosanols from raw sugarcane has the potential to provide a means of enabling individuals with high cholesterol levels to consume such a small daily quantity of such a product that the respective corresponding sugar intake would be well within the maximum sugar intake recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), which has recommended a maximum daily sugar intake for adults of five percent (5%) of total daily caloric intake. For a normal weight adult, that is about 25 grams of sugar per day.
Unfortunately, the development of an efficient, repeatable, cost-effective commercial method for maximizing the extraction of policosanols from raw sugarcane during production of a stabile natural consumable sugarcane juice product has proven elusive. Accordingly, there has been a long felt, yet unmet, need for a repeatable, reliable and cost-effective method for processing raw sugarcane to produce a highly stabile policosanol-rich potable sugarcane juice product on a commercial scale. Such a method would provide a means for producing a natural cholesterol-lowering consumable product at such a low cost that it could be made readily available to all individuals, particularly the millions of people that currently do not have the financial means to afford existing pharmaceutical drugs. Furthermore, such a method would provide a healthy alternative to drugs manufactured by the pharmaceutical industry that are known to have negative health side effects.
Accordingly, applicant began experimenting with alternative sugarcane processing methods for producing a variant of his stabilized sugarcane juice that maximizes the preservation of the policosanols stored in the cells of the pre-processed raw sugarcane used to produce his shelf stable sugarcane juice. Following much experimentation, applicant has discovered a variation of the sugarcane processing method originally disclosed in his above-identified issued U.S. patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,245,153), which overcomes the aforementioned challenges by providing a repeatable, efficient, and highly cost-effective process for the commercial production of a policosanol-rich, stable, consumable product from raw sugarcane.